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Movie Industry Sued for Hacking By Gwendolyn Mariano May 28, 2006 11:15AM Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and not affiliated with the litigation against the MPAA, said he is concerned that the big media companies are going to take actions that are "dangerous and violate people's rights."   Related Topics MPAA File Sharing Lawsuits Piracy Latest News Endeavour Inspected for Damage Autism Risk for Kids of Older Mothers Go Online and You Can Save the Planet In Haiti, Relief Gaps Are Spreading U.S. To Form Climate-Change Agency In the latest chapter of the David and Goliath saga between the film industry and file-sharing software companies, Valence Media has sued the Motion Picture Association of America, alleging that the MPAA hired a hacker to steal information from the media company. In its suit, Valence Media, operator of TorrentSpy, alleges that in July last year, the MPAA paid a man $15,000 to infiltrate Valence Media's systems and find trade secrets. The suit claims that the hacker accessed TorrentSpy servers, allegedly copying TorrentSpy's financial information, private e-mails, and sensitive marketing documents. TorrentSpy is an indexing service designed to facilitate the distribution of large data files, thus enabling users to search for and download copyrighted television and movie programs. He Said, She Said "The MPAA was involved in pirating trade secrets so we went ahead to get a remedy and tell the MPAA to stop it," said Ira Rothken, attorney for Valence. "The suit is completely baseless," said Kori Bernard, a spokesperson for the MPAA. "It's safe to say that it's a desperate attempt to take the spotlight off of the fact that they are knowingly facilitating piracy." Although Valence Media and the MPAA are waging a heated battle over copyrighted works, it's a closely watched case that illustrates how consumers are stuck in the middle of the battlefield. Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and not affiliated with the litigation against the MPAA, said he is concerned that the big media companies are going to take actions that are "dangerous and violate people's rights." Google Next? In the EFF's published analysis of the battle between the MPAA and TorrentSpy, the nonprofit organization made a point that an earlier lawsuit filed by the MPAA against TorrentSpy is not just about copyright, but about Internet indexing. "What's the difference between a 'good' index and a 'bad' index?" the EFF asked on its publication, EFFector. "The complaint gives little guidance about what the studios think separates TorrentSpy from any other index." The EFF analysis pointed out that in its motion to dismiss the MPAA suit, TorrentSpy poses the following question: "How is TorrentSpy different from Google? After all, Google indexes dot torrent files too."   Tell Us What You Think Your Comment: Also Visit: iPad Info Center Billions of Bytes Mobile Device Now Apple Info Center TopTechWire.com Advertisement  Computing 1.   MS: Windows 7 Doesn't Hurt Battery 2.   Tips for More Windows 7 Productivity 3.   The Pros and Cons of Apple's iPad 4.   IBM Power7 Server Takes on Big Load 5.   China Cyberattacks: Pervasive Threat EPIC Objects To Google-NSA Ties Cyberattack meant to rattle Google? Average Rating: Symbian 3 Is Now Fully Open Source But mobile OS remains linked to Nokia. Average Rating: Google Attack Highlights Black Market Paying for bug info is hotly debated. Average Rating:

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